While the people of Detroit are made to feel guilty for their water bills, bankers and fraudulent financial practices remain at the core of it all. From the get go, credit default swaps placed bad bets using Detroit municipality money and city pensions as collateral into a pre-2008 financial crash market. After the stock market crash, the city’s financials went from slow decline to rapid free fall. As reported by the Detroit Water Brigade:“This financial report, prepared for the city by an outside firm, shows how the economic crisis of 2008 rapidly accelerated Detroit’s financial decline. The crisis turned what would have been a slight downward trend in city water revenues into a death spiral of debt that ultimately drove the city into bankruptcy.During the nine fiscal years from FY 2006 through FY 2014, the reported total fund net position for the combined Water and Sewer Systems has deteriorated by approximately $1.547 billion.The report goes on to break down this decline and what caused it, particularly bad financial “swap losses” from soured credit default swaps from the financial crisis, amounting to about $561 million, or 1/3 of the total losses. It goes on to say that DWSD would actually be operating with positive financial health if it weren’t for the crisis:Absent occurrence of these unforeseen events, the net position of the combined DWSD water and sewer funds would be comfortably over $1 billion, substantially mitigating concerns regarding the financial health of the DWSD utilities.”Read the full report below:Foster Group DWSD Equity AnalysisDescending upon America’s corporate sacrificed city to further abuse its people, emergency financial manager and Wall Street hatchet-man, Kevyn Orr only made matters worse. Masquerading as Detroit’s savior, Orr announced water shutoffs to 140,000 residents, or roughly 40% of the city. Protests slowed the process yet it appears that more will be needed to stop this machine as 25,000 more residents are now facing a new round of shut-offs. It was never told to Detroit residents that they do not owe a large sum of this corporate city money lost due to fraudulent credit default swaps. Perhaps this situation would be playing out differently if the media had done its job to disseminate this information earlier. In fact, it appears Orr and his financial henchmen knew coming into to it that this was going to essentially be a simple extortion racket. What has received little reporting has been the Detroit citizens, attempting to do the right thing from their point of view, signing onto payment plans with “fine print that residents could not ever dispute bills which occurred prior to the plan.” Many signed their rights away. Orr has since left town as residents and organizations are now working towards more long-term goals and fixes that don’t involve unempathetic pen strokes. In a speech made in Detroit shortly after the city first announced mass water shut-offs to residents, President Obama showed no concern by gas lighting the crowd stating:“We have made real progress since the worst economic crisis of our lifetime.”DETROIT WATER SHUT-OFF SOURCESDetroit Water BrigadeThe Wave Fund